Ok – I know it was likely irresponsible of me, but I went to the midnight showing of The Dark Knight. I really enjoyed Batman Begins and knew this was also Heath Ledger‘s last movie – I really wanted to see it. I text messaged a friend at 10:30pm and asked if he wanted to see it with me and within the hour we were on our way… to a sold out theater … without tickets. Minor oversight, one quick call on my cell and we had tickets to another theater across town.
I’ll start with what I didn’t like – they changed Rachael! In Batman Begins, Rachael was played by Katie Holmes – very cute… but this version was played by Maggie Gyllenhaal – Not as cute. The movie wasn’t quite as dark as Batman Begins either. What I really loved about Batman Begins is how it really removed the cartoonish nature of some of the Batman villians as well as Batman’s charactor. I’m not saying the The Dark Night is comical at all, just not as dark as Batman Begins. My only other negative thoughts are the length. Some movies are three hours long and at the end you say – wow, that was fast – I wish it were longer… this isn’t one of those movies. It had about three endings – kinda like a preacher promising to close the sermon down at noon on a Sunday morning, then preaching to almost one. Sometimes you don’t mind if the preacher just kept on going, other times you think – “I wonder how long the wait is at the restaurant…”
Ok – on to the positive: Heath Ledger. He was amazing. Did you see Johnny Depp play Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl? Do you know how he brought something special to that charactor? Well, Heath Ledger did that something special for the Joker. Don’t get me wrong, Jack Nicholson played a great Joker – but Heath Ledger was truly amazing! He really took the charactor over the top in the best way. If I were rating the movie based soley on his performance, it would easily be two thumbs up, 5 stars, a must see. But, I’m not rating the Joker only…
In all, I give it 3 stars out of 5. They traded out the eye candy, they missed several shots at a big ending, but the Joker was amazing, the special affects were good, and a few other points I will keep out of the review so I don’t ruin the movie for you. For now, I have less than three hours before I have to go to work – so g’nite!
One reply on “A Night at the Movies: The Dark Night”
I had to wait until I saw the movie before I read your post, I wasn’t sure if you were spoiler free or not. You should add that at the top.
I agree Heath Ledger did a great job and I was skeptical going in, he won me over. I don’t know what you mean by dark but I think this movie was darker that Batman begins.